Lost Disk Space on Install

I have just installed XP Pro with a clean install onto a 200GB hard drive with no partitions after the installation disk manager/explorer shows that C: capacity is 186GB and Used space = 60GB and Free=125GB.

So the OS has taken approx 60GB as there is no software installed apart from SP2 any ideas as to what is going on?

I am running chkdsk at the moment and it is taking ages to "Verify free space" will report back when completed.

I am prepared to start again if required, thinking about it should the capacity be larger then 186GB (I do appreciate that some space is lost)

Paul

 

Well it looks like it may have cured itself as I said I was running CHKDSK and it was taking a long time on "Verifing free space" it finally finished and in disk manager it now shows the following:

Volume = (C)
Layout = Partition
Type = Basic
Status = Healthy System
Capacity = 186.31GB
Free Space = 182.54GB
% Free = 97%
Fault tolerance = NO
Overhead = 0%

Unless anyone can see any errors in this I will consider Hard Drive up and running and will continue with software installs.

Paul

 

Looks fine. Would go ahead. HDDs never have the advertised size; it's rounded up. However, I don't like the single partition; would separate OS, data, and programs on mine.

 

Thanks for the confirmation, I do have another fixed drive at 80GB and a External USB drive for backups at 40GB.

Paul

 

Paul,

What Sparrow was referring to was separating your data and programs from the operating system. My main drive is also 200 GB, but the OS is on a 15 GB partition and using a little less than 8 GB. If you install other data/programs on the hard drive along with the OS, these will be lost if your Windows installation fails. I find it is much more convenient (and safer) to isolate Windows on it's own partition. Your decision...

B